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Public Policy, Public Opinion, and Consent for Organ Donation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2001

LAURA A. SIMINOFF
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio
MARY BETH MERCER
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio

Abstract

Medical advances in transplantation techniques have driven an exponential increase in the demand for transplantable organs. Unfortunately, policy efforts to bolster the organ supply have been less than effective, failing to provide a stopgap for ever-increasing numbers of patients who await organ transplantation. The number of registrations on waiting lists exceeded 65,245 in early 1999, a 325% increase over the 20,000 that existed 11 years earlier in 1988. Regrettably, more than 4,000 patients die each year while awaiting transplantation.

Type
SPECIAL SECTION: TRANSPLANTATION ETHICS: OLD QUESTIONS, NEW ANSWERS?
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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